*pthtbthphht* Teacats ;-) ;-) ;-) If you really don't want to decorate in A&C style with Mission furniture, you most certainly don't have to! The Decorating Police are not going to descend upon your home and arrest you for violating some "law" that a couple of pieces of furniture trap you into a style you don't want to follow. Mission furniture goes quite well with many contemporary pieces, for example, as well as with primitives, not-too-spindly Shaker pieces, pretty much anything that continues that simplicity of shape. Some people like to mix in Asian things - some of the most prominent designers of the period were heavily influenced by Asian traditions, like Greene & Greene and Frank Lloyd Wright. Especially since it's natural cherry instead of something dark and "classic Mission" like fumed oak or mahogany (the Stickleys used quite a bit of mahogany) your furniture already has a less "conventional Arts & Crafts" look. Handwoven textiles or vintage embroidered linens (eBay and Touch of Europe has some great vintage stuff at pretty reasonable prices) are perfect for tablecloths/runners. Think about a faux-sisal carpet in wool or polypropylene, or to go in the other direction, a braided rug. LLBean has nice ones and a lifetime guarantee on their products. Although Betty is IMO on a good track with a suggestion of pottery, you are not restricted to period pieces - since you like primitives, putting a collection of primitive pottery jugs and pitchers on the buffet would be interesting and attractive, and still compatible with the furniture. It's undoubtedly a little bit of a cliche but I still have a fondness for a pottery jug or chunky vase filled with pussywillows! (Although I am totally over the whole curly willow fad. LOL) Actually, pretty much anything handcrafted would play nicely here - baskets, folk-art paintings, etc. Wrought iron would be very good for lighting to merge your liking for primitives with the Mission items, but you're not limited to A&C style things at all. Hubbardton Forge makes a lot of really neat iron lighting. With the natural cherry furniture and painted trim, you may want to try lighter colors than you would with stained trim and dark oak/mahogany furniture. Sorry, I don't agree with Teacats' color recommendations, because IMO deep color does not work as well with light painted trim and light wood tones - too high contrast - and by the Twenties the Colonial Revival style was coming to dominate over A&C anyway. The strong, muddied A&C colors were being replaced with lighter, softer tones like soft green, slatey blues, pale peach/coral, and such, and white trim was actually coming to be the norm. Probably a revolt against the last few decades of dark stained trim! :-) (If you have a Finneran & Haley paint dealer around by chance, they have excellent pamphlets with paint chips for their Historical Colors lines. Don't go by the dealer locator on their site, call them, because I don't see the dealer nearest to me in their listing.) Many of the colors in Bradbury & Bradbury's Arts & Crafts II wallpaper frieze line are appropriate as well - their samples are pretty cheap and might work nicely for color-scheme inspiration. Hope this helps some.

The only knock-offs that we've liked are those sold through Phil Taylor's Antiques. We have a 'knock-off' Limbert sofa from him and it's gorgeous. The only different is that our wood, while 'old looking' isn't quite as old looking as the original fumed wood would be. Generally, the original is the most authentic - largely because of how the wood was colored/treated and finished. I'm only a very satisfied customer of PTA, not affiliated with the business otherwise. Here is a link that might be useful: phil

Okay, just got off the phone with the builder. Here is what we are doing. The 40x30 is already framed above the sink. We are adding a 20x30 on each side that will be like 4" apart from the center one. Then we will trim it all up in a craftsman-style look. It means a little over 85" of that wall will be cabinets. We also have to account for at least like 8" of space on each side of the windows...before the cabinets. Not sure how much uppers that leaves in the kitchen, not feeling well today and my math is usually off anyway. Thanks for the input guys... I appreciate it. Oh, could not go higher... that would really have thrown them for a loop and I think what we are getting will look great already, but thanks! Okay, I think I did the math and we should end up with about 48" of upper cabinets on that wall. On the range wall, roughly 5 ft of uppers left. On the fridge wall, about 8-9ft of upper left. Just a guess. That is still a lot, plus the lowers.. making a lot of them drawers will offset a lot and the pantry.. nothing to sneeze at imo and we get a much nicer view and more light. Thoughts? R

We have lived in various regions within the USA and internationally. What I have learned is that the region dictates the aesthetic, based on topography and climate. We have lived in the Bay Area and I was amazed by the options. I particularly fell in love with the variety of succulents, especially aeoniums which I cannot grow where I now reside because we have freezing temperatures. There is no need to settle for just rock and gravel as you can see from the pictures of my garden below. I now live in what is known as high plains and we have lean, clay ,arid conditions. Despite the obstacle, there are a variety of options for xeric plantings and even more with your mild CA temperatures. First I would remove all those toxic wood chips which end up leeching nitrogen from the soil as they breakdown, as well as releasing harsh chemicals into the ground. Then amend the soil with some gravel or a product called expanded shale which helps with drainage. Then decide the look you are going for and plant. There are areas in my garden where there was bare rock and I sprinkled seed and now I have color in those areas with very little water and no soil amendment. i went back to school as a horticulturist once my kids left home and followed my passion in my second career. I use my garden as my laboratory and only keep the things that thrive(usually natives). I do not think our gardens should be ICU’s where we have to take extraordinary measures to keep things alive. This is not only impractical but not sustainable for our planet. Gardens can be low maintenance but beautiful with the right plant choices. This was all planted by throwing out seed . It is watered a few times each summer with a hose when I notice drooping, Another xeric area grown with wildflower seed, watered about 3x in the entire summer. the 2 photos above are areas where I put in plants rather than seed. The water in the background is a farmers ditch that runs through our property during the summer months but I draw water from it rarely. I use a drip irrigation system for the planted areas about 1-2x /wk in the summer depending on how hot it gets.